Frank Brangwyn

Frank Brangwyn thought an artist’s mission was ‘to decorate life’. He produced over 12,000 paintings, prints, furniture, ceramics and book illustrations, including prestigious commissions for Tiffany and the Rockefeller building in New York. His support for the William Morris Gallery included donating a wonderful collection of his own work.

Music (1895)

Frank Brangwyn (1867 - 1956)

Brangwyn was already receiving recognition in Europe by the time he was in his late twenties. He had exhibited in the Paris Salons, where his painting The Buccaneers had made his name.

He also came to the attention of the celebrated German dealer and art collector Siegfried Bing, who commissioned him to paint a mural for the entrance hall of his famous ‘Maison de l’Art Nouveau’. Unusually for him, Brangwyn painted the mural in situ. It consisted of this scene, called Music (which was originally slightly larger than it is now) complemented by one called Dance.

Alongside Morris and Mackmurdo, Bing was one of the most important influences on Brangwyn’s career, introducing him to mural painting, and to the European artistic avant-garde.